Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a widely-used technique for wireless and other types of communications. In OFDM, data is transmitted in parallel over multiple equally spaced carrier frequencies using Fourier transform methods for modulation and demodulation. By inserting a guard period or guard interval, referred to as a cyclic prefix, between symbols, data on OFDM subcarriers can be received orthogonally with no inter-carrier interference (ICI) and no intersymbol interference (ISI). Eliminating the ICI and ISI mitigates the effects of delay spread, making OFDM well-suited to wireless multipath channels. Moreover, for wireless channels, OFDM can be used with coding to easily exploit frequency diversity and combat Rayleigh fading to improve reliable information transfer.
It is well-known that OFDM systems demand strict timing and frequency synchronization between the transmitter and receiver. To avoid intersymbol interference (ISI), the receiver must adjust its symbol timing so that the symbol transitions occur within the cyclic prefixes between the symbols. In a multipath channel, the cyclic prefix must contain the symbol transitions under all signal paths. Also, being a multicarrier system, the OFDM receiver and transmitter need to be tightly frequency synchronized in order to avoid intercarrier interference (ICI).
Several methods have been proposed for OFDM time and frequency synchronization. Blind algorithms known in the art generally do not use any pilot training signals and typically exploit the correlation of the OFDM cyclic prefix for synchronization. While blind methods are generally not wasteful of bandwidth on synchronization pilots, the synchronization accuracy is typically not as good as that attained using pilot-assisted methods. Other known systems utilize pilot-assisted synchronization methods based on a number of different pilot synchronization signals.